Crystalaire at Crystalaire Country Club

Crystalaire Country Club sits in the high desert community of Llano in the Antelope Valley of northern Los Angeles County, approximately 75 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Designed by William Francis Bell and opened in the 1960s, the course occupies terrain characteristic of the Mojave Desert fringe, where the landscape transitions from valley floor toward the San Gabriel Mountains. The setting features sparse vegetation, open sightlines, and the kind of firm, fast-playing conditions common to California's arid interior regions.

Bell, a prolific Southern California architect active from the 1950s through the 1980s, designed numerous courses throughout the region, often working with challenging desert and foothill sites. At Crystalaire, the routing takes advantage of the natural contours and elevation changes inherent to the high desert topography. The course serves a small residential community built around aviation, as Crystalaire began as a private airpark development where homeowners could taxi aircraft directly from hangars to the adjacent runway.

The club operates as a semi-private facility, offering a quiet alternative to the more crowded courses of the greater Los Angeles basin. The remote location and modest scale give Crystalaire a distinctly unhurried character, appealing to golfers seeking straightforward desert golf without the resort amenities or conditioning standards of better-known desert destinations in Palm Springs or Scottsdale. Wind is a frequent factor in play, and the course rewards accuracy and course management over pure distance.